GOC Fined GH₵1,000 Over Unlawful Dismissal Of Former Project Officer

An Accra Labour court has today fined the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) GH₵1,000 for filing its defence belatedly in the case involving the “unlawful dismissal” and assault of its former Project Officer Erasmus Kwaw.

The trial judge, Lorenda Owusu, awarded the fine against the GOC after hearing submissions from the lawyer of the plaintiff Simon Animley.

Mr Animley said the GOC had filed its statement of defence belatedly after the mandatory 14 days had expired.

The plaintiff filed a motion for judgement in default of defence last month before the GOC acting through its lawyer Peter Zwennes filed its defence statement.

A former Project Officer of the Ghana Olympic Committee Erasmus Kwaw sued the GOC for wrongful termination of appointment in late January 2018.

In a writ of summons issued at an Accra High Court on January 26, 2018, the plaintiff is seeking a declaration that the termination of his appointment was wrongful or unlawful; damages for wrongful or unlawful termination of employment; payment of $1,300 per diem allowance for a trip to Botswana in 2014 and payment of $2,100 per diem allowance for a trip to Glasgow in 2014.

The GOC President Ben Nunoo Mensah was on Friday, February 2, 2018, formally served with a writ of summons by a high court bailiff at the Olympic building car park in Accra.

In his statement of claim, Erasmus Kwaw avers that on March 17, 2017, the President of the defendant in the company of some unknown men barged into his office and verbally assaulted him.

He states that on or about July 28, 2018, Ben Nunoo Mensah instructed one Nana Mankata to collect the keys to his office and change his door locks.

Kwaw who is also the PRO of the Ghana Athletics Association avers further that he received a letter August 24, 2017, by the president Ben Nunoo Mensah terminating his appointment with the defendant effective August 30, 2017.